47 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
47 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
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Article 983 of sci.electronics:
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From: kg19+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kurt A. Geisel)
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Subject: Re: creating a robotic-sounding voice
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Message-ID: <IZUeQ7W00WB5I34JB9@andrew.cmu.edu>
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Date: 10 Dec 89 18:57:11 GMT
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Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
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Lines: 37
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Altering the voice can be done in several ways. The most effective
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and dramatic method, the one most associated with robots in movies and
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TV, is by means of a device called a Vocoder. A Vocoder modulates an
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electronic signal (usually a harmonically rich oscillator, like a
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sawtooth wave) with the speech pattern of the speaker. It does this
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by a form of spectrum analysis- a set of N filters giving N bands of
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resolution. When a filter is excited by its particular band from the
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human voice (or any other sound, for that matter) it opens the
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corresponding band filter on the noise source. The result is the
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"robot voice" as we know it from science fiction. Unfortunately, as
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you may have guessed, the circuit isn't cheap or simple. You need at
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least eight bands for intelligable voice. The cheapest vocoder I know
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of is a $99 kit from PAIA Electronics, an electronic music hobbyist
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supplier whose address is listed below.
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Other methods are pitch shifting, also not cheap; flanging, which can
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be done cheaply be is always very dramatic. Another thing I might
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consider are those "voice disguiser" circuits sold in electronic
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countermeasures catalogs. There is a particular good set of plans (we
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should be able to be made fairly cheaply) sold by Consumertronics.
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PAIA Electronics, Inc.
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3200 Teakwood Lane
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Edmond, OK 73013
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405-340-6300
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Consumertronics Co.
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John J. Williams MSEE
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PO Box Drawer 537
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Alamogordo, NM 88310
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- Kurt
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Kurt Geisel SNAIL :
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Carnegie Mellon University 65 Lambeth Dr.
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ARPA : kg19+@andrew.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15241
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UUCP : uunet!nfsun!kgeisel "I will not be pushed, filed, indexed, stamped,
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BIX : kgeisel briefed, debriefed, or numbered!" - The Prisoner
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